While a variety of salad spinners are known in the art, for example, in U.S. Patent Application No. 2006/0037211A1, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,473,988 and 5,865,109, none are available which provide the user with the ease and simplicity of manipulation of the salad spinner, such as is the subject of the present invention.
Salad spinners in the prior art typically consist of an outer bowl, an inner perforated basket adapted to nest within the outer bowl, a drive assembly for rotating the basket to attain water removal by centrifuge action. Some of them are further fitted with a brake assembly which is, however, of complicated construction.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2006/0037211A1 discloses a drive mechanism having a rotary drive plate with a cord drum and a pull cord, rotational movement of the drive mechanism by a pull grip enables the spin-drier basket to rotate. However, a separate brake mechanism is required to stop the rotation of the spin-drier basket in this patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,473,988 illustrates a drive assembly which includes a conversion mechanism for transmitting axially reciprocating movement of a plunger to rotational movement of a lid relative to a cover. The cover carries a radial movable latch engageable with the drive assembly for latching the plunger in a downward or retracted position. In this patent, a manually depressible brake is provided for frictional engagement with the lid to brake rotation of the lid. This brake is however not easy to operate and requires a substantial amount of effort to stop spinning operation.
The salad spinners disclosed in the above two patents are operated atop the lid of the salad spinners. While U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,109 discloses a drive mechanism for salad spinner, comprising a drive gear associated with a handle laterally mounted on the lid and a pinion gear which meshes with the drive gear whereby lateral movement of the handle allows for spinning of the inner basket. Similarly, there is no brake system in this patent, application of force on the drive mechanism is required to rapidly stop the spinning operation or the inner basket is allowed to slowly come to a halt.
These salad spinners fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, but these spinners and the known products on the market require either application of force on the drive assembly or a separate brake system to stop spinning operation. Therefore, there exists a need for a salad spinner which is easy to spin and convenient to stop the spinning.